Drone Services Attachment A - Proposal Instructions and Evaluation Criteria.v2.pdf

Attachment C

Proposal Instructions and Evaluation Criteria

Drone Services

May 24, 2024

PROPOSAL INSTRUCTIONS

Fermi Research Alliance, LLC (FRA) is interested in awarding one Firm-Fixed-Price subcontract for FRA’s Statement of Work (SOW) to implement Drone Services. The information provided in the Proposal Package will be the basis by which FRA will evaluate the company and its product.

To ensure the Proposal Package is given full consideration, offerors must do the following:

• Read these instructions carefully to understand the requirements;

• Provide a complete Proposal Package in accordance with the format and instructions herein;

• Provide information satisfying all criteria in Parts I and II; and

• Provide the name of and contact information for the company’s proposed lead/point of contact.

PROPOSAL PACKAGE FORMAT

The offeror’s Proposal Package shall be in two (2) parts:

1. Part I – Technical Proposal

- Vendor Response template

- Technical Requirements

- Exhibit A

- RFP Form

- Vendor Proposal (Infrastructure, Security, System, Cybersecurity and Privacy, Data, Data Access, Integration, Service Design)

- Compliance documentation

- Terms and conditions exceptions

2. Part II – Pricing Proposal

- Pricing Proposal

The Technical Proposal and Pricing Proposal must be separate files. Each file must be complete so that the evaluation of one proposal may be accomplished independently of and concurrent with the other. Unnecessarily elaborate brochures, artwork, and expensive visual and other presentation aids beyond those enough to present a complete and effective proposal are not desired and may be construed as an indication of the offeror’s lack of Pricing consciousness. If an offeror chooses to provide a proposal on their own paper; in addition to the requested attachments, the paper should address and follow the order of the domains addressed in Attachment C – Requirements to ensure the evaluation team can quickly and correctly review proposals. Proposals should be prepared with maximum economy, consistent with this procurement, to ensure that the resources of the offeror and FRA evaluators are used efficiently.

EVALUATION CRITERIA

BASIS FOR SUBCONTRACT AWARD

This is a best-value source selection. The award shall be made to the subcontractor whose proposal conforms to the solicitation’s requirements and who is judged to represent the best value for FRA.

FRA will use the Tradeoff source selection method. The best value is represented by the most advantageous offer, Pricing, and other factors considered by FRA. FRA may make an award based on a proposal that may not necessarily be the proposal offering the lowest Pricing or receiving the highest technical rating. Prospective offerors are advised that a proposal meeting the solicitation requirements with the lowest evaluated Pricing may not be selected if the award to a higher evaluated Pricing proposal is determined to be most advantageous for FRA. FRA will not, however, make an award to a higher Pricing proposal that provides only marginal additional technical value.

As technical scores become closer, then Pricing becomes more important.

FRA reserves the right to award without discussions with the Offerors.

PART I – TECHNICAL PROPOSAL CRITERIA

Offerors are requested to use the format described in Attachment D – Vendor Response Template to simplify the review process and minimize repetitive material. At a minimum, it must include a written response to each item in the template and should disclose the Offeror’s project approach in as much detail as possible. Offerors are encouraged to focus on a detailed technical approach specific to this effort rather than standard marketing language. The Technical Proposal must not contain any reference to Pricing.

FRA will use the factors defined in the Vendor Response Template (Attachment D) to evaluate and rate the Technical Proposal. They are listed in order of importance:

Factor 1 – Solutions Capability

Factor 2 – Technical Approach

Factor 3 – Functional & Technical

Factor 4 – Capacity to Perform

Factor 5 – Company Safety Program

FRA will score each of the aforementioned factors using the scoring matrix listed in Table 2.

Evaluations of these factors, when combined, are significantly more important than Pricing.

Table 2. Proposal Evaluation Ratings

Color Rating Score Description

Blue Outstanding 10

Proposal meets requirements and indicates an exceptional approach and understanding of the requirements. Strengths far outweigh any weaknesses. Risk of unsuccessful performance is very low.

Purple Good 7

Proposal meets requirements and indicates a thorough approach and understanding of the requirements. Proposal contains strengths which outweigh any weaknesses. Risk of unsuccessful performance is low.

Green Acceptable 5

Proposal meets requirements and indicates an adequate approach and understanding of the requirements. Strengths and weaknesses are offsetting or will have little or no impact on contract performance. Risk of unsuccessful performance is no worse than moderate.

Yellow Poor 2

Proposal does not clearly meet requirements and has not demonstrated an adequate approach and understanding of the requirements. The proposal has one or more weaknesses which are not offset by strengths. Risk of unsuccessful performance is high.

Red Unacceptable 0 Proposal does not meet requirements and contains one or more deficiencies. Proposal is un-awardable.

PART II – PRICING PROPOSAL CRITERIA

The Offeror must submit a Pricing Proposal, along with any of its attachments, as a separate document marked: Confidential – Pricing Proposal. The Pricing Proposal must reflect the Offeror’s proposed Pricing and pricing structure in accordance with Attachment D – Pricing Proposal. FRA will evaluate the Pricing Proposal based on the estimated Pricing in the worksheet and whether those estimates are realistic. The term and all option pricing shall be evaluated. The Pricing Proposal will be evaluated separately from the Technical Proposal.

Offerors must also submit documentation as an attachment to the Pricing Proposal to support the following Go/No Go factor:

Financial Condition and Capability:

Offeror's financial condition and capability will be evaluated to determine if adequate resources are available and committed for performance. During the evaluation, financial references may be requested and contacted to determine the offeror's financial stability during past years. The adequacy of available working capital to facilitate performance under the subcontract will be evaluated.

The evaluation of this information will be to determine, on a “go, no go” basis, the financial health of an offering supplier, and to determine if there are foreseeable and knowable financial issues that would threaten or undermine the success of a given supplier should

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they be awarded a subcontract resulting from this solicitation, and ultimately to minimize the overall risk to FRA.

Demonstrated proof of financial stability will be determined by a review of the following documentation:

Offeror’s credit rating report obtained from one of the credit monitoring bureaus (e.g., Equifax, Experian, TransUnion).

This financial information and documentation will NOT be reviewed, evaluated, or scored by the technical evaluation team, but rather by experienced Procurement personnel knowledgeable about such documentation. Should additional resources be required to make a determination, the Procurement personnel will access those resources as required.

EVALUATION TIMELINE

Table 3 shows the planned timeline for proposal preparations and evaluations. Based on scoring results from the initial proposal evaluation, up to two offerors will be asked to participate in presentations of their proposed solutions, along with an accompanying Q&A session. The duration of each session will be 1 hour or less. To accommodate scheduling, a one-week period (Through October 4, 2024) has been set aside for the presentation sessions. Once the interview sessions are complete, a final scoring evaluation will occur and will be combined with Pricing proposal information to make the final determination.

Table 3. Proposal Evaluation Timeline

Activity Due Date RFP released July 15, 2024 Offeror proposals due August 30, 2024 Initial proposal evaluations complete Sept. 13, 2024 Candidate vendor down-select complete Sept. 20, 2024 Schedule vendor interviews Sept. 25, 2024 Conduct vendor interviews Sept. 30, 2024 – Oct. 4, 2024 Final evaluations complete October 15, 2024 Contract awarded on or before October 30, 2024 Target implementation start date November 1, 2024

EVALUATION TIMELINE